Happy Friday!

To the bus stop... 

....and back home.

Quote

Lily is so entertaining.  She loves to sing songs and make up the words as she goes.  She talks a lot.  She loves pretending, playing school, coloring.  This morning, while she was coloring, she said to me in the kitchen, very matter of factly:

"You know what God doesn't like?  Sin.  So you shouldn't like sin.  

You know what else God doesn't like?  For lions to swallow you.  That is sin for lions."

Field Trip

With a day off school, we had to get out of town.  

So we took a field trip to the vet's office.

We learned a little about dog anatomy (and good hygiene).

 Later we headed out for a bike ride.  Maw and Paw's dog, Wally, came with us with us in the van to get to the trail.  You know I'm not a dog person so that made it extra special.  ;)  It was the kids' highlight of the day.  They couldn't stop talking about it.  It did give me a good laugh to say yes and thrill them.  And Wally is a pretty nice dog, especially b/c he doesn't have to come home with me.

 They made an old railroad track into a trail.  

 Peter is almost big enough that I can wear his clothes when I am cold.

 Maw had some slime and some heroes.  Wrapping the bad guys or heroes in slime entertained Peter for an hour or more.  Lily made me and Maw bracelets out of the slime.

Favorite Things

I think I've mentioned that I do a sewing class at our church.  The class is the brain child of a lady who wanted to find a way to reach out to the immigrant ladies living in the neighborhoods around our church.  I feel so blessed that I get to be a part of it.  I've said many times that it is a dream come true for me.  It combines some of my most favorite things.... 

crafting and international ladies and Bible study.

This summer Lily and I were talking a little about children who don't have mommies and daddies.  And things we could do to love them.  We had the idea together to make them "taggie lovies" b/c Lily loves hers so much.  Then, just a week or so later, Mary, the lady who leads sewing, told me that she had the idea to make baby blankets for a missionary doctor from our church who works in Kenya.  So excited.  Lily and I bought our material and got to sewing (after much procrastination).  We only managed to make 2 lovies (before presenting them to the doctor this morning).  But we may sew more??

 Here is one of our finished products (oops, forgot to rotate pic).

Here are all of the blankets from the ladies at sewing class.  :)

 Sewing Friends... 

 Left center below is the OB-GYN in Kenya.  It was so encouraging to have her join us, to hear about her work, and to look together at how Jesus loves women so personally.  Her testimony of her calling tied in so perfectly with what we've been looking at in our Bible study lessons.

It is such a joy to be involved in this class.  

Its a highlight of my week and "fills my tank" to be with these ladies.

Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.  1 Thess 2:8

Pumpkin Patch

We headed on our 4th annual preschool field trip to the pumpkin patch.  I don't find this patch to be quaint at all, as I think it should be. Hmm... could be those big power lines going through it?  But, being my one and only year with Lily, we were excited.  I do not like going on theses trips alone, without other kids or moms... I feel like it steals some of the fun and benefits of going.  So at the last minute, we grabbed our friend, M and her daughter and Lily's classmate, G, out of the carpool line to ride with us.

 

M is a fun lady!  I loved hanging out with her and getting to hear more of her story.

It was rainy and cold so we made bonnets out of a shopping bag and a plastic bag ;)

 Bringing her pumpkin up the hill... 

 Queens of the hay stack!

SMOs & SPIOs

 We have new gear.

So this is the third year that we have gotten SMOs (supra malleolar orthosis) for Peter.  Its a custom made shoe insert to provide extra support for his feet.  When they were first recommended, it overwhelmed me.  I've come to love them and see that they do help him.

 It was sorta sweet to go in for our third time around.  It allowed me to see how far we've come.  The first year the kids were bouncing off the walls and this year, they just played with the toys and obeyed when it was time to go back.  Progress each year.

They sat calmly in the chairs and looked at the designs.  Peter gets excited for the print he'll get on them each year... this year its Batman.  Lily also enjoyed flipping through the samples telling me which design she'd like when she got jumpers.  They do have good girl designs!  ;)

 The same orthotist has molded Peter's feet each year.  He is just a kind man and calls Peter "friend" when he speaks to him.  Its always sorta fun to see him.

A few weeks later, after they came in, we went out for new sneakers.  I had to cave and buy some for Lily too.  The girl needs to get a treat too!  :)

The other new thing for Peter is that at the recommendation of his physical and occupational therapist, we ordered him SPIOs (stabilizing pressure input orthosis).  Its a set of tight fitting spandex garments that he wears under his clothes.  We call it his "hero suit".  He thinks that's great and so willingly wears them.  The purpose of them is to provide extra sensory input to allow him to feel and work his body better.  The brochure mentions improvements in posture and attention, both of which sounded great to us.  He's been wearing them for 4 weeks.  Its hard to say how much its helped because I mostly have him wear them at school and then allow him to take them off at home.  But he tells me that they feel "good, like a hug". 
At Mike's leading, three years ago, we shifted our mentality to assume we'd fully use our health benefits, instead of trying to avoid or minimally use them, which is my normal approach.  We plan & budget to meet our deductible each year.  Peter recently met his individual deductible and the benefit comes the second half of the year when everything is fully covered.... like both of these new items for him, plus his remaining therapy sessions.  Thankful for His provision in this way.  

Pumpkin Pie

The kids had a date night this weekend with Goo. 

They made pumpkin pie!  

How fun is that?!